Zara Thompson knew performing arts was where her future lay when she was plucked from the chorus five hours before opening night to sing a solo.
She didn’t know the words and hadn’t practised the song but the singing teacher at St Peter’s Catholic School in Cambridge was convinced the 12-year-old could fill in for the lead who had called in sick.
Zara Thompson at home in Cambridge. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Once she got permission to hold song cards and the nerves were gone, Zara was away.
“That was quite a special moment,” the Wintec Bachelor of Performing Arts student says five years on.
Zara, who went on to attend St Peter’s School, left after Year 12 to pursue her passion and is in her first year at Wintec.
She has secured a role in the ensemble of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Hamilton Operatic Society’s production which opens at the Clarence Street Theatre in Hamilton next month.
Waipā performers in Hamilton Operatic Society’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame clockwise outside the Clarence Street Theatre stage door, from bottom left: Simon Brew, Corrine Law-Schuitemaker, Christy Park, Zara Thompson, Jessica Ruck-Nu’u, Scot Hall and centre Chris Gale. Photo: Sarah Hughes.
The 17-year-old is the youngest of several Waipā performers in the production. The others include Corrine Law-Schuitemaker, Chris Gale, Jessica Ruck-Nu’u, Simon Brew, Scot Hall (all from Cambridge), Felix Rowe (Te Awamutu) and Christy Park (Koromatua).
There are some familiar faces around the show – director David Sidwell worked with Zara when she played the lead in Anastasia at St Peter’s last year and the year before that when she was part of the School of Rock ensemble.
Photo: Sarah Hughes.
Felix is a fellow Wintec student and was in St Peter’s School Musical Theatre Academy with Zara.
The musical is based on Victor Hugo’s novel and includes songs from the Disney animated feature.
The set will recreate Notre-Dame de Paris, the mediaeval Catholic cathedral in France which sustained damage in a structural fire five years ago and is expected to reopen in December.
Zara – who learned music from Sam Cleaver at St Peter’s School and this year by Julia Booth at the School of Media Arts – is one of two sopranos involved in the ensemble.
Quizzed about what her dream role would be, Zara says she would love to play Anna of Arendelle in Frozen, Kathryn in Newsies and Éponine in Les Misérables plus to sing as well as Phillipa Soo, who played Eliza in the musical Hamilton on Broadway, would be a dream come true.
Photo: Sarah Hughes.
Photo: Sarah Hughes.
